There was a mild drama at the Yaba Magistrate Court in Lagos on Monday as policemen attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department filed an application seeking to remand #EndSARS protester, Eromosele Adene, for an extra 30 days.
The policemen had last week arrested Eromosele in Ikeja and taken him to the police command headquarters and then transferred him to the Area F Command before detaining him at the SCID, Panti. He was last Monday flown to Abuja and detained for seven days before being brought back to Lagos on Sunday.
However, rather than charge him, the policemen secretly approached a Magistrate, O.A Salau, without the consent of his lawyer and applied for a remand order to detain him for an extra 30 days.
Eromosele’s lawyer, Mr. Tunde Jinadu, who was at the SCID, was told by policemen that his client was no longer in custody.
However, Jinadu immediately received word from concerned persons about what the police were up to.
Speaking with The PUNCH, he said, “We were not served. We were not called that he was being brought to SCID. An ACP told me they didn’t know where he was. This sharp practice of the police needs to stop. They just wanted to shut us out. That was how they flew him to Abuja last week without my knowledge.
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“Luckily, some good people informed me that he (Eromosele) had been taken to a magistrate court. Thank God I have a car. I was able to quickly arrive at the court.”
On arrival at the court, the policemen were said to have been shocked and wondered how the lawyer was able to get information on what was happening.
The lawyer added, “The police asked the magistrate for an order to remand him for 30 days despite the fact that he had already spent 12 days in their custody.
“We tendered a medical report from Eko Hospital as regards the liver complication and immune system and we made an oral application for bail. And we notified the magistrate that he (Eromosele) had been moved from one detention facility to the other and one state to the other.”
The magistrate subsequently fixed the ruling for Tuesday.
PUNCH
